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Friday, August 21, 2009

Foreman's Shot

I hate to rain on the ambitions of the tribe, but I am very skeptical of Russian-born, Israeli-raised, America-residing Orthodox Jewish boxer Yuri Foreman's chances in his upcoming title shot again Daniel Santos (32-3-1, 23 KOs). Foreman (27-0, 8 KOs) is an extremely strong technical boxer, but is very cautious and has precisely zero pop. Santos is much cruder, but is the definition of rugged and represents a huge step up for Foreman, with wins over Antonio Margarito, Joachim Alcine, and Yuri Boy Campos (among others). Here's how he beat Alcine to capture the WBA 154 lbs. title they're fighting for:

Foreman's best win, by contrast, is probably a split-decision over Andrey Tsurkan, who is double-tough but extremely limited. He also has a win over welterweight fringe contender Jesus Soto Karass, who jumped up in weight, and looked as good as I've seen him early against Cornelius "K9" Bundrage in his last match before that fight was stopped on a headbutt in the third. None of those guys, however, is anywhere close to Santos' level, or even folks that Santos has beaten.

Foreman's game plan will be the same that it always is -- make the fight boring (he would have had a title shot earlier, but the fight meant to set up the bout -- a 10 round split-decision over Anthony Thompson -- was so horrifyingly dull that the plan was called off). He's certainly very capable of that, but Santos is a come forward, gritty sort that (in the much less talented form of Tsurkan) has troubled Foreman in the past. I haven't heard anything bad about Foreman's chin (and there is no way he's stopping Santos), so it should go to a decision, but I'm predicting a comfortable UD for Santos.

Even still, the allure of combining two of my passions -- Jews and boxing -- is too much. So count down one supporter of Foreman -- even if I do expect him to go down in flames.

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